He Sees Dead and Dismembered People

ParaNorman is fun with a message

It seems crazy, but animated films may be the best way within the movies to tackle mature themes.

How else can a movie make us deal with subjects such as death and bullying without coming off like an After School Special?

ParaNorman tackles those themes and more while still supplying fart jokes, zombie dismemberment gags and a clever blink-and-you-miss-it approval of equal rights.

Norman (Kodi Smit-McPhee, better than he was in The Road or Let Me In) can see and communicate with ghosts. That makes him an outcast and a subject of bullying from Alvin (the bullied-in-other-movies Christopher Mintz-Plasse), his family and the whole town.

However, Norman’s town has a curse that threatens to destroy it and, of course, only he can stop it. What starts as an animated The Sixth Sense becomes a clever joke-filled romp with surprisingly effective dramatic overtones.

When Norman confronts the movie’s baddie, the animation is terrific and super intense. The sound design will blow you to the back of the theater. There’s a reason ParaNorman is PG.

There’s also excellent voice work from Anna Kendrick, Tempestt Bledsoe (Vanessa Huxtable!) and John Goodman.